Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin Interrupts Obama Speech

President Obama was interrupted during a major speech on national security policy by Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin, who shouted from the back of the auditorium about his administration’s abusive policies of indefinite detention and drone warfare, leading the president to acknowledge her and even pause to let her finish.

Obama lamented efforts by Congress to prevent the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention center, saying it “never should have been opened.” At this point, Benjamin, who had remained quiet for almost the whole hour, shouted at the President, reminding him that it is perfectly within his power to close the facility on his own.

“Let me finish ma’am,” the President said, as he stumbled over the interruption to continue his prepared remarks.

“I’m willing to cut that young lady who interrupted me some slack, because it’s worth being passionate about,” Obama said. “Is this who we are?” Obama asked in reference to his indefinite detention policies. “Is that something our Founders foresaw?”

Media spoke up again when Obama failed to more fully address the killing of Abdulrahman Awlaki, the 16-year old son of suspected terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki, in a 2011 drone strike in Yemen.

What about him? Benjamin asked, as Obama paused to wait for her to be escorted out by security.

“Can you tell the Muslims that their lives are as precious as our lives?” Benjamin asked rhetorically as she was dragged out. “Can you take the drones out of the hands of the CIA? Can you stop the signature strikes that are killing people on the basis of suspicious activity? Will you compensate the families of innocent victims you have killed?”

“I love my country,” she said. “I love the rule of law. The drones are making us less safe.”

Once she was fully escorted out, Obama said, “The voice of that woman is worth paying attention to.”

“To be honest, I wasn’t sure I was going to do anything,” Benjamin told him. “I was prepared if I wanted to, but I thought there might be some real significant things that came out of this, and I thought, well, I’m not going to say anything if it’s a really good speech.”

Benjamin was not arrested at the scene, but said she was questioned by Army personnel, Secret Service, and FBI agents, before she was let go.

“I was very forthcoming, gave my name, Social Security number, address and everything. They asked me what my motives were and I explained it all,” she said.

“I must say, I do really appreciate that I live in a country where if you interrupt the president you don’t get beaten and tortured and thrown inside a prison for a year,” she added.

20 thoughts on “Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin Interrupts Obama Speech”

Medea Benjamin is one of the only people to confront Obama directly since he took office.
Hopefully this is just the beginning of mounting pressure that will expose and end the murderous drone program.

Where is the answer regarding that " the President, reminding him that it is perfectly within his power to close the facility on his own." ? Did he refuse to comment this? Why no comment or further research about it? Even not to open question is stated.

Medea is my "hero". She said it all with few words and persistence. As usual Obama was
glib and very "slimy" in his half truthed response. Which of course was NO RESPONSE.
We are less safe and we are "war criminals" as far as international laws of war ,as the
Geneva Conventions define them.

By saying "we" are war criminals etc, i hope you don't mean average Americans like me. i had nothing to do with the crimes in question. But "we" do know who the criminals are and I could provide several names, starting at the top.

Obama has the power to release any or all of the Gitmo detainees. It was a specifically authorized power of the POTUS by Congress. He won't even release the ones judges have ordered to be released! Yet he wrings his hands like no one will let him do what's right… Bleh! What a show for the masses.

Aireck, and as long as the masses keep focusing (being distracted) by each individual issue (like GITMO) then the masses will be asses.

It sort of reminds me of the typical 'shell game' scam, where three cups/shells rotated fast by the hand of the con-man are used to distract the rube.

But, in the case of individual 'political issues', like GITMO, or drone assassinations, or torture, or banking regulations, or 'fiscal cliff', the con-men (of the EMPIRE) have dozens of rotating cups/shells of 'issues' that they manipulate fast and confuse the rubes to no limit, and the rubes are just too dumb to keep their eyes on the swift-moving hands of the EMPIRE shills who distract them with even more distractions than a typical carney crook.

"Step right up. Keep your eye on the moving pea/issue under the shell, You too could be a winner if you concentrate on the pea/issue!! And for God's sake don't worry or look at the EMPIRE behind the curtain!"

But the reality, Aireck, is that only pea-brains let their attention be distracted by single issues.

As much as I applaud Medea for non-violently confronting the faux-Emperor/president on the issue of GITMO and drone assassinations, this confrontation that did not put
Obama off-stride and which was focused on single issues, identity issues, or what I call single 'symptom problems' was, despite Medea's great bravery and efforts, not effective in confronting Obama with a massive, single, signal, and comprehensive CAUSAL CANCER that stopped this shill in his tracks and made it absolutely impossible to side-step the key cause of all the problems that all Americans would immediately relate to and demand an answer to.

The only way to throw this smooth-talking bastard front-man and puppet of the ruling-elites' Global EMPIRE off stride and to confront him with something so bold that he can not side step the confrontation on any ONE LITTLE ISSUE, is to hit him with the clear and simple exposure, un-masking, ugly-truth, 'shout-out', and public confrontation of — "What are you going to do about the Global EMPIRE that has 'captured' and now "Occupies" our former country, the corporate, financial, militarist, media, quasi-legal, and political GLOBAL EMPIRE
behind you and both these phony DUAL-Vichy Parties — which is the proximate CAUSE of all these problems of; expanding wars, drone assassination, torture and GITMO, Wall Street looting, vast inequality, Global Warming and environment destruction, lying and deception from the
media and YOU?"

Now, such a non-violent and verbal confrontation like that would not be polite, and it is not what lying politicians (particularly Obama) expect, BUT it works!

I tried it on Romney myself and it unhinged the sh*t out of him — with nothing left to respond with since such a broad confrontation of the very basis of the EMPIRE that has 'captured', "Occupies", and controls us and our former country, and the EMPIRE which CAUSES ALL OUR
PROBLEMS can not be even allowed to be responded to —- because this truth will bring down the disguised EMPIRE behind Obama, the Democratic Vichy Party, the Republican Vichy Party, the corrupt courts (including
the un-Supreme Court), the MIC, the propagandist media whores, the criminal and looting financial sector of the EMPIRE on Wall Street, the corporatist crooks, and the whole infrastructure of the EMPIRE — just as surely as the broad and public articulation of all the grievances of
the American Declaration of Independence against the British EMPIRE so broadly and comprehensively confronted the British EMPIRE with why
American HAD to break away from the whole corrupt and un-reformable system of totally non-democratic and integrated corporate, financial, militarist, media, legal, and political EMPIRE control was totally inconsistent with a free and self-governing people (which of course is
as true today as it was in 1776!!!).

Best luck and love to the fast expanding 'Occupy the Empire' educational and revolutionary movement against this deceitful and disguised Secret Global EMPIRE, which can't so easily be identified as wearing RedCoats, Red Stars, nor funny looking Nazi helmets —- quite yet!

We don't merely have a gun/fear problem, or an 'Austerity'
problem, or an expanding wars problem, or a 'drone assassinations' problem, or a vast income & wealth inequality problem, or a Wall Street 'looting' problem, or a Global Warming and environmental death-spiral problem, or a domestic tyranny NDAA FISA spying problem,
or, or, or, or …. ad nauseam — we have a hidden EMPIRE cancerous tumor which is the prime CAUSE of all these 'symptom problems'.

"If your country is treating you like sh*t, and bombing
abroad, look carefully — because it may not be your country, but a Secret Global Empire only posing as your former country."